


About Time

by rebel_diamond



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Post-Thor: The Dark World
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2015-01-15
Packaged: 2018-03-07 17:12:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3177516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebel_diamond/pseuds/rebel_diamond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Heimdall witnessed a disturbance, beings appearing from seemingly nowhere, altered in some way.”<br/>“An Einstein-Rosen Bridge?”<br/>Thor shook his head, “He’s unsure.”<br/>“But it could be an Einstein-Rosen Bridge,” Jane suggested brightly.<br/>“Jane, I thought we agreed,” Thor began, glancing over to where Leika played on the floor.<br/>She threw up her hands, “I know, I know, whoever’s race discovers it gets to go check it out first.” She continued throwing items into her bag, now with a little more force than necessary. “But Asgardians seems to find all the good stuff,” she lamented.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my awesome beta Shotgun_Betty

“Papa! Papa!”

The door to the apartment flung open, followed quickly by the familiar sound of pink Converse high tops pattering on the wood floor behind him. Thor threw the towel he was drying dishes with over the shoulder of his black t-shirt, turned and crouched down to catch the little girl who was flinging herself through the air at him.

He smoothly caught her and lifted her up in the air, where she could easily reach the ceiling. “Hello, my princess,” he greeted her. Her purple skirt fluttered out around her as he tossed her and she kicked her striped leggings in the air and pretended to fly, a well-rehearsed dance. His four year old’s long blonde hair flew in her eyes and the barrettes that he was sure had been carefully placed in her hair that morning were now hanging limply throughout her blonde tresses. No barrette, hairpin or elastic band was any match to his baby girl’s spinning and climbing.

“Papa, I saw the stars! They were _this_ big!” she threw her arms as wide as she could. Thor chucked at her enthusiasm, which was one of the many things about her that reminded him of her mother. Even at her young age she had an enthusiasm for the sky that never ceased. And this from a little girl who regularly traveled the bifrost. “We saw it with the telly-scope. They were that big, weren’t they mama?” The little girl held onto father’s neck, put her knees on his chest and did a backbend to look at the door upside down where her mother was still setting down her bags. Jane looked a bit disheveled herself. Thor wondered who had chased and wore out who first.

“We sure did, baby,” Jane grinned at her daughter, immediately joining in on her zeal. “S.H.I.E.L.D. resources really impress me sometimes,” she told her husband. “Some of the new gear picking up near ultraviolet spectra could give Hubble a run for its money.” Jane emptied her bag while she talked. Coloring books and crayons spilled out and rolled across the kitchen table. She dug further in the bag before she pulled out her old, weathered notebook. The same one he had grabbed on his way out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound in New Mexico. The edges were frayed and the cover was stained, but every time she filled the journal to the brim, instead of buying a new notebook she just tore out the pages and bound fresh ones into it. She said she didn’t want to replace it. It was theirs. She opened it, turning to the last few pages. Thor could see over Jane’s shoulder. Next to Jane’s detailed illustrations and complex calculations were less elegant representations of the same thing, with nonsensical numbers and letters scribbled across the pages. Thor smiled at the pictures, both at Jane’s breakthrough and Leika’s mimicry. His girls.

Thor knew her readings must have been truly notable, for Jane wasn’t quick to compliment S.H.I.E.L.D. or their resources. Her relationship with the organization was complicated. To Thor, the group had moved Jane away from immediate danger when he had asked them to, which was good enough to atone for any trouble they gave him in New Mexico. In Jane’s experience, first S.H.I.E.L.D. swept away all of her records and atmospheric data. Then they swept _her_ away to Tromsø, Norway for absolutely no reason, interrupting the attempts she was making to open a wormhole to reach Thor. Being in Norway had made it impossible to reach Thor in New York before he disappeared again, leaving her helplessly watching the battle on television with no word from him. All of these affronts had been too much to bear. After one last move to London to follow a hunch of Erik’s, Jane had given up looking for Thor, given up all hope of ever seeing him again. She shifted the entire focus of her career and took work as an adjunct in the physics department at Kings College London, where her mother was a literature professor, while she recalibrated her life.

It wasn’t until after Thor had returned to her in such a dramatic fashion, after their experiences in Asgard together when he had abdicated the throne and returned to Earth, that she returned to her original work. She had seen too much in Asgard not to. And S.H.I.E.L.D., as Thor’s employer, was suddenly all too willing to bring her into the fold. Jane was understandably dubious of their offers. While she was inspired by the technological advancements in Asgard and eager to return to her research, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to share her findings with S.H.I.E.L.D. Thor shared her concerns. While he trusted his immediate … coworkers, for lack of a better term for the superheroes he fought alongside, with his life, he had seen and heard too much to trust the institution as a whole. But, as Nick Fury had pointed out, he was partly responsible for introducing a slew of new threats to Midgard, and he had sworn to protect the Earth and its peoples, so he and S.H.I.E.L.D. shared a similar mission. Despite her reservations, if Jane knew anything as a researcher it was that money and resources were scarce. And S.H.I.E.L.D. could provide her with both. She supplemented S.H.I.E.L.D. with Stark Industries, a company with a CEO who didn’t mind bending rules to get the work done. This way she didn’t have to sell her soul to either institution, both of whose motives could be questionable.

Thor tossed Leika in the air again, this time catching her on his hip, feeling the comforting weight of her at his side. He tickled her and smiled as she flung her head back and laughed. She wound her tiny fist around the hair that was tied at the nape of his neck, a comforting gesture she’d been doing since she was a baby. An air of familiar melancholy washed over him. He remembered the first time he had held Leika; she had felt like a cloud in his palm. If it wasn’t for the soft warmth of her skin on his hands or the beautiful miniature face struggling to open her eyes to see him, he wouldn’t have believed she existed at all. How fast time passed on Midgard. So much joy tempered by a kind of sadness. A deep heaviness in his heart.

It was similar to the way he felt when he and Jane were apart - two years, as she had so often reminded him, usually accompanied by some type of physical assault. There they’d be, walking down the street or sitting on the couch. “Two years!” she would suddenly exclaim, seemingly out of nowhere, before pushing him hard in the chest or bashing him with the pillow she had been tightly wrapping her fingers around as she silently worked herself into an indignant fury. At first he’d try to argue with her and defend himself, but he soon gave up that feeble attempt and took to gathering her up into his lap instead. He understood her insecurity; there was a fragileness to their bond then. They had made so many sacrifices for one another in such a short amount of time. So many grand gestures based only on a feeling that couldn’t be properly articulated in any language. Eventually, “Two years!” turned into a grumble under her breath, then a veiled threat used only when she was mad at him about something, and then, when their time spent together had finally surpassed their time spent apart, when it was certain he would never disappear from her life again, it faded.

Jane flipped through her notebook, excitedly gesturing at new connections she had made that afternoon. Thor adjusted his daughter on his hip and walked across the kitchen to her as she talked, lost in her work.

“This could actually go a long way determining the rate of the expansion of the universe...,” her words drifted off when she felt his strong arm firmly around her waist. She looked up at him, properly taking him in for the first time since she walked in the door, “Hello, by the way” she told him softly, feeling the same butterflies she had felt the very first time he had wrapped his arm around her and yanked her close.

“My queen,” he said answered softly, kissing Jane.

Six happy years had passed since the Battle of Greenwich. They tried not to spend too much time apart, when Avengers duty took him away, and they traveled to wherever their work took them. Mostly they stayed on Midgard, Thor as a defender of Asgard, but not the ruler of it. The storms they had weathered, they had done so together. She was an astrophysicist trying to advance the human race; he was the protector of it. Tony once summed them up as, “a symbiotic relationship. She punches holes in the universe and he fights whatever comes out.”

But black holes and war had taken on a whole new level of meaning when Leika was born. Their work wasn’t just for the human race anymore, for which they had both been so willing to sacrifice their lives, but to protect their daughter and give her the best life possible, which meant keeping themselves alive. In the first few years of Leika’s life, they found themselves not looking to the sky, but down to the ground where Leika learned to roll over, then crawl, and finally walk.

As the only Avenger with a child, Thor and Jane tried to shield Leika from the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries as best they could. Tony said they were overprotective but Bruce understood their caution. In between battles, the Avengers scattered all over the world and were kept on the move. When they did see one another, Thor and Steve got along swimmingly, most likely because neither was of this world or time but shared an enthusiasm to learn all they could. While Tony was a little much for Thor or Jane, Jane and Bruce shared similar fields and quiet dispositions that made them fond of each other.

Leika had met all of the Avengers at various times. Bruce was at first very skittish to have a small child running around near the labs but, upon learning how much physics Leika already knew, soon he was giving her little quizzes on protons and neutrons. She had even met Natasha and Clint, the outliers of the group who were around the least. Natasha and Leika were dubious of each other, but by the end of the night Clint was helping Leika shoot arrows, which Natasha found amusing. Tony was a charmer of all women, including Leika, but Jane had a suspicion that their daughter had a crush on Steve, who treated her like a lady. Yet, despite the moon eyes at Steve, as far as their Leika was concerned, her father hung the sun, the moon and all the stars they studied.  

Jane watched Leika put her hands on her father’s face. He made a fish face at her and kissed her. They were enamored with each other. Thor set Leika down, and she ran into the living room. The apartment was small and cramped for the three of them. Leika could hop all the way across the apartment and back using just the furniture, her feet never touching the floor. With Thor’s relative size, Jane’s work collaged on the walls, and Leika’s toys spread out on the floor, it was an especially tight squeeze. Jane’s work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries and Thor being, well, an Avenger, could arguably afford them something swankier, but that had never been their style. Together their little family moved between apartments and cities and countries and realms with relative ease, making a home wherever they found themselves. They only stayed in the small apartment in the city when Jane needed access to equipment she couldn’t get anywhere else. Technically S.H.I.E.L.D. could send her what she needed. She could set up a whole pop up city if she felt so inclined. But to initiate that was to get tied up in bureaucratic tape, which wasn’t their style either.

Thor faced Jane, leaning back against the counter, “We had a visitor while you were away.”

Jane narrowed her eyes, scooping up the items that had fallen from her bag, “Good visitor or bad visitor?”

“A messenger from Asgard.”

“So both.”

“Heimdall witnessed a disturbance, beings appearing from seemingly nowhere, altered in some way.”

“An Einstein-Rosen Bridge?”

Thor shook his head, “He’s unsure.”

“But it _could_ be an Einstein-Rosen Bridge,” Jane suggested brightly.

“Jane, I thought we agreed,” Thor began, glancing over to where Leika played on the floor.

She threw up her hands, “I know, I know, whoever’s race discovers it gets to go check it out first.” She continued throwing items into her bag, now with a little more force than necessary. “But Asgardians seems to find all the good stuff,” she lamented.

Thor smiled sympathetically, he approached Jane, placing both hands on her shoulders, forcing her to drop her bag and face him, “If it is a wormhole, I promise I’ll return for you immediately.” While Leika was a good traveler, they tried not to whisk her away before they knew what the danger was. He placed a hand on her face, “I fear I must leave you for a few days.”

Jane folded her arms, “That seems to be happening more and more lately,” she frowned. Not a complaint, just an acknowledgement. If it wasn’t Asgard lately, it was Fury, or Stark or one of the other Avengers requesting his presence. “And when you are here, I have my head in a telescope the whole time.”  

He smiled tenderly and kissed the worried crinkle between her brows away, “It should only be for a few days this time.”

Jane sighed. Time. Something they could all use a little more of.


	2. Chapter 2

_6 years earlier..._

Jane and Thor strolled through the streets of London. They walked with their hands linked, Thor absentmindedly rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand and Jane often squeezing his, as if to make sure he was still there, beside her and real. Had they ever held hands like this? Jane didn’t think they did. When the sidewalk got too congested with businesspeople and tourists, Thor tugged gently on her arm, bringing her in front of him, where people naturally parted. In the almost two weeks he’d been back from declining the throne of Asgard, she had the chance to notice things about him she hadn’t before. Simple things, like how long his hair had gotten, which made her sad for the passage of time and how much of it they had lost. On the other hand, had any of the many battles they had fought gone a different way, they wouldn’t have the last ten precious days they’d spent squished into her apartment at all. Jane released his hand only to wrap both her arms snugly around his forearm. He looked down at her clinging to him and smiled softly. As if sharing her thoughts he gathered her closer as they walked.

They often walked aimlessly like this together, even in the rain, sometimes pausing to look in shop windows or eat off food trucks. It was the only way to escape the tiny London apartment cramped with a still slightly crazy Erik, Darcy, and now Ian. The elation they had found on her rooftop porch of finally being together for the foreseeable future quickly gave way to the reality of the situation, of thin walls and hurt feelings. It was hard to have a heart-to-heart when they could hear Darcy on the other side of Jane’s bedroom door, making kissy sounds at them, or the crunch of cereal in Ian’s mouth five feet away. It was a difficult environment for a love that had so dramatically blossomed to grow. Even in those brief moments when Darcy and Ian would take Erik out to eat and they were in the apartment alone, the air felt too heavy. There was too much to say. Despite the words he had spoken to her about being a fool and fate bringing them together, by involving her in the battle against Malekith, he had placed her in danger _again_. Even if it was to give up the throne of Asgard he had left her, unsure of when he would return, _again_. And don’t think Jane didn’t notice Sif giving her the stink eye on Asgard.

Leaving the apartment may have provided them the space they needed but outside wasn’t always much of an improvement. He had been all over the news following the Battle of New York. Darcy had found a dozen Tumblr accounts dedicated to him. Now again, after The Battle of Greenwich, he was a celebrity. It was getting to the point where they couldn’t have an entire conversation alone. In his street clothes with his hair tied back they could sometimes get away with it, but the Prince of Asgard was not built to _not_ to draw attention to himself.

He threw his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into him as they continued down the street. He shortened his gait so he could lean down and speak in her ear, “And what will you do now?” he asked, continuing the conversation that had begun in the apartment.

Jane sighed, leaning her head against him, “I don’t know,” she furrowed her brows. “I’m scheduled to go back to teach in the fall. But I also need to return to my research. I’ve seen too much in the last few weeks not to. It’s going to be a lot of work though. What’s common on Asgard isn’t going to be accepted as fact here.” She looked up at him, “How do you feel about staying in London?”

Thor considered her question, “Until I’m needed elsewhere, I’ll go wherever your work takes you.” His eyes narrowed, “Though being near you has only ever placed you in danger,” he answered honestly.

She punched him lightly in the ribs, causing him to crack a smile, “Give me a little credit. This time I managed to do that without your help.” More people passed them on the street and she tried not to be paranoid about the eyes that lingered on them. There was a tall blonde co-ed sitting with her friends at an outdoor patio whose head swiveled to follow them.

They slowed in front of a bakery and stopped in front of the window, decorated with wicker baskets filled with loaves of artisan bread. He met her eyes in the window’s reflection. “You stopped looking for me,” there was a hint of sadness in his voice. “You were safe. You would have remained so had you not begun looking for me again.” His features grew taut and the focus of his eyes shifted from hers.

“We’ll blame that one on Darcy,” she responded lightly, tugging on his shirt and leading them back down the street and out of his reverie. “Besides, if you’re with me, I won’t have to go looking for you anymore. That’s one problem solved.” Problem solved, her two favorite words in the English language. She had to specify the English language because Thor had taken to whispering words in the language of his ancestors in her ear that she found particularly appealing.

 “I am serious, Jane,” he continued, walking by her side. “You must take into consideration that by being with me you are sacrificing your safety,” He glanced back at the young woman, still staring at them. “and your anonymity.”

Jane visibly stiffened, her steps quickened and she didn’t look him in the eye, her worst fears realized. “Is this your cue to leave again and never come back?” He missed his native realm and regretting leaving his people to be with her. Because what was Earth, really, in comparison to the wonders of Asgard? Not to mention the power he had there. He didn’t want to be with her. He wanted a Midgardian booty call.

She tried to ignore his effort to catch up with her but the fact that it only took him three steps to equal what could be considered for her a light jog only annoyed her further, “Jane, no. You misunderstand me.”

“Ohmygod, it is you. Harry, I told you it was him. Thor, you are my favorite Avenger!” a voice rang out behind them.

Thor turned his head at the sound of his name. A man and woman in their fifties had been trailing them for several blocks. Judging by the woman’s accent and the cameras hanging around their necks, they were American tourists. Jane had noticed the woman’s proximity several times but chose to ignore her, hoping it was a coincidence. The woman ran up and planted herself in front of Thor. “We’re from New Jersey,” she gestured to her husband who was standing some ways down the sidewalk, looking less than thrilled, “We watched the whole Battle of New York on TV. I recorded it and always fast forward to your parts,” she told Thor. “My sister prefers Captain America, but I told her she’s crazy,” she waved a hand. She held her phone up at him, gesturing to take a selfie with him, “May I?”

He opened his mouth to answer but looked to Jane, the struggle between his personal life and his duty evident in his eyes. He might not actively court the spotlight to the same degree as Iron Man, but he was royalty after all and he bore the attention well. And if being royalty, literally or figuratively, was partly political, his healthy ego combined with his sense of obligation to the people he had sworn to protect made him a natural on any planet. Jane crossed her arms and shrugged. “Of course,” he replied finally. Thor jovially leaned in, putting his arm around the woman and smiled. He never turned down fans who approached him in the street; especially women of all ages, his primary fan club. Jane had always been aware of his boyish charm but spending more time with him had cemented something else she’d always suspected about him … he could be a vivacious flirt.

The woman took the photo and looked up at him adoringly, “My favorite part was when you …”

But her husband had already come up and taken her arm, gently dragging her away, “Alright, Joyce, I’m sure the man has better things to do,” he nodded at Jane, acknowledging where she waited patiently by the curb. She smiled tightly at the man, his recognition more than what she normally received. At least she wasn’t asked to take the picture this time. Maybe staying in London wasn’t such a good idea. As Thor wished the woman well, Jane turned on her heels and continued down the street.

“Jane,” he called out, this time her name had a slight tinged of irritability. 

She just sped up, stuffing her hands her coat, “I’m just saying,” she continued when she felt him beside her, “if you regret giving up Asgard to be here with me, just tell me now, Thor. We won’t have to drag this out any further.”

The familiar rap of Jane’s ringtone blared out of her pocket, interrupting his response. Jane halted and dug it out of the inside of her coat. Thor stopped next to her and folded his arms. “Is that Richard?” he asked, nodding to the phone in her hand.

Another topic they hadn’t properly discussed yet.

They could feel the familiar shift of the people around them. Jane glanced up to find three young men staring at them with obvious interest. The woman had begun a domino effect. Jane heard the click of phones, some trying to be stealthy about it, others holding them over their heads to get a better shot.

And now Thor was being difficult.

“No,” she ground out, fiddling with her phone to silence it. She looked at him, matching his agitated look with one of her own, “It’s probably one of your fans, looking for you.”

They stood there on the sidewalk, clenching their jaws at one another. Their staring contest was broken when a stranger stuck a phone between them, snapping a photo before running off, the noise making Jane flinch, “The least they could do is put the cameras on silent,” she muttered.

Then the shouts began.

_“Thor, where’s your hammer?”_

_“He could hammer me anytime.”_

Jane took a step back, shaking her head, “Are we having our first fight?” she asked incredulously, looking around, “In _public_?”

“No,” he answered coolly, his eyes running over the gathering of people around them that was quickly becoming a mob. He felt Jane pulling away from him, physically and emotionally. He would have neither. His face set, he grabbed her bicep and guided her down a side street. “I am fairly certain that was when you slapped me across the face.”

“And you were a lot nicer about it then,” she groused, shaking him off.

“Jane,” he said sternly. He stopped in the middle of the road and turned her towards him, placing his hands on her shoulders.

“Thor!” he was distracted by yet another person yelling his name. They heard the repetitions of his name, spreading, growing louder.

He gave up. Standing up straight, he sighed deeply, looking deep into her eyes, “Do you still have the trailer in the desert?”

 

______________________ 

_Puente Antiguo, New Mexico_

Sitting behind her in the old lawn chair, he watched Jane lean into the fire they had started, stoking the embers with a stick. The light of the flames flickered off her features in the dark and he reached out to wind his hand through her dark hair, gently twisting and playing with it. She sighed, tossing her stick aside and leaning her back against his chest. He continued to run his fingers through her hair as they looked up at the stars.

Being in Puente Antiguo again made all the memories of first meeting Jane come flooding back to him in vivid detail. He had been so … bemused by her, which quickly led to fascination. He watched her around Erik and Darcy and when she fiddled with her devices, at once chipper, then so focused on her work. But around him, she reminded him of a nervous bird. She shrunk away and shivered whenever he came near her, when all he wanted to do was to sweep her up and protect her. In Asgard he protected everyone in his world. But on Midgard…Jane was his whole world. Thor wondered whether he would have worked so hard to protect Midgard had she not been on it.

Throughout his life he’d been looked at by the women of Asgard but their countenances were of outright offering themselves to him or scampering away with their eyes lowered in deference to his rank. He’d taken up the offers of a few of the former, passed a few hours chasing and teasing the latter. But nothing they presented him could hold his attention as much as the thrill of battle. Until Jane.

And no one beside his parents had ever told him “No” or “Don’t do that” before. No one had ever talked him out of a fight before either. But when he had taken Jane to Asgard and his father’s soldiers had come to take her away, when he was ready to tear some of his own people to shreds to protect her, one of her hands on his arm and all the fight went out of him and he let her go. At home, no one had taught him anything since his tutors when he was a child. Just being around Jane for mere days had taught him patience, customs, empathy.  

“My mother liked you very much,” Thor’s voice broke through the silence of the night. He thought of Frigga’s instinctive attitude towards Jane. Upon his return from Midgard, she had noticed and appreciated the changes in him the most. While others thought him distracted, she considered him improved. While Odin thought him an unfocused leader, she thought him a better man. His eyes faded for a moment before fixating back on Jane, “… as did my brother,” he smiled at the last thought.

"And I liked her," Jane responded, thinking back to the funeral for the woman she barely knew but had been so instrumental in her life.

He wrapped his arms around her, “I believe she appreciated that I had chosen someone as equally …”

“Stubborn?” she craned her neck to smile at him.

He chuckled, “I was going to say strong willed.”

When they’d first returned to the Airstream they were, to Jane’s surprise, a little hesitant around each other. They’d never been alone together for so long, removed from danger and the sight of everyone, and it made them almost shy with each other.

Except when they slept. They’d slept for days on their arrival, physically and emotionally exhausted. She imagined he'd be the princely sort, spread eagle across a huge mattress. Since they both preferred being outdoors than anywhere else, most nights they slept out under the stars, looking up at and talking about the universe and their place in it together. But on nights it rained, she never thought they'd both fit on the tiny trailer bed, but he piled up pillows against the wall and reclined himself there, reaching out for her and molding himself effortlessly around her tiny frame, neither suffocating or overwhelming, but comforting. There they lay and listen to the rain bounce off the tin roof, talking softly, laughing, fingers intertwined.

And that’s where they’d made love for the first time. All their previous, innocent physical interactions had been like the lightning he pulled from the sky, quick and intensely charged. This time when they kissed, no one interrupted them. And when she rolled onto her back and she grabbed a fistful of his shirt and urged him on top of her, no threat issued from the sky. When their clothes were discarded onto the floor, no one called him away. And when they finally joined together, time stood still.

 

 

 


End file.
